Hi there, first let me start off prefacing this with my frustration. I've gone to two recent 'comic conventions' that have been nothing more than kids dressing up as Japanese characters. I went to MidsouthCon back in March and GMX in Nashville just two weeks ago. Both were prominently promoted with comics being one of the main points and both hardly even addressed comics.

One of the main things I'm going for is comic exhibitors. Each of these conventions had exactly ONE comic book booth and the rest were selling either fan fiction books (not my thing) or homemade crap like crystals and other things that appeal to another subsect of people. Perhaps I'm expecting too much from a COMIC convention but I expect to see MOSTLY comic stuff. Of course you can't find out that the convention is weak until you pay your entry fee, which btw, is way too much for what you're getting.

Tell me, do I expect too much? I'm looking for comic-related stuff and people seem to think this is an outlet for other geek-related stuff..I don't mind a variety but when its billed as a comic convention I expect comic stuff.

I most likely won't be attending these again, both were extremely disappointing.Big signatures are REALLY annoying.

Massachusetts has a well attended convention titled Megafest. Not knowing where you are, it is well worth attending... some of the CCL sellers here attend, and this month's event features Stan The Man himself, celebrating his 90th birthday no less. Several booths, mostly silver/bronze age material. I picked up Iron Man #2 in fine condition for $5.

Framingham, MA Nov 17/18tickets are cheap, like $22

...come to think of it, Boston, New York and New England in general have pretty good sized comic conventions."We make a pretty good team, even if we don't work together." - My son

First off, is it a -comic- convention? My point was the few I've been to were labelled comic convos but nothing more than a cosplay fest (to make it worse, most were characters Ive never seen before, seems to be mostly japanese 'stuff').

Also, $22 is great compared to the $40 that GMX asked for admission to a crapfest. I really hate to be negative about it but something that promotes itself so much and about comics was basically devoid of any comic content.

I guess what I'm looking for is something that is about COMICS and not all the other peripherial geek crap. That show sounds pretty good but alas its too far away.

Small-time shows call themselves comic conventions, in order to bring in people, but they're a general geek smorgasboard. And $40 is ridiculous for a convention. At least, in my opinion. Might be the reason I haven't been to one in years.

If you want a COMICS convention, you're going to need to travel and hit one of the bigger shows. Mid-Ohio, Heroes, Dragon (ehhh..), Emerald City, Motor City, etc.

I dunno if Wizard still has a website, but I do know they tend to do shows a lot. Philly, Austin, Chicago, etc.

Denver Comic Con was a blast and almost entirely comic-oriented.http://www.denvercomiccon.com/lots and lots of booths with vendors selling comic bookssome booths with vendors selling comic-related merchandiselots of comic book artists (famous as well as "unknown")a fair amount of people dressed up as comic book charactersNeed help with a Change Request?Click here to contact an approver!Problems with CCL?Send an email right away (don't delay!) to helpdesk@comiccollectorlive.com615-264-4747Offices are open M-F 8am-5pm Central Time.You can also e-mail the Chief Brand Officer directly to try to resolve questions/stuff at steve@golocomedia.com for help with password resets, general customer service questions, store order resolution, credit card store updating, questions about comic books and CCL, etc...

Xylob's Most Wanted:G.I.Joe Special Missions TPB 2Tales from the Transformers Beast Wars: Critical MassYoungblood Bloodsport #2 maybe? can you help identify?

Small-time shows call themselves comic conventions, in order to bring in people, but they're a general geek smorgasboard. And $40 is ridiculous for a convention. At least, in my opinion. Might be the reason I haven't been to one in years.

If you want a COMICS convention, you're going to need to travel and hit one of the bigger shows. Mid-Ohio, Heroes, Dragon (ehhh..), Emerald City, Motor City, etc.

I dunno if Wizard still has a website, but I do know they tend to do shows a lot. Philly, Austin, Chicago, etc.

I wouldn't bother with Motor City, and I live in Michigan. I head out to C2E2 in Chicago. While it's not exclusively comics, it's still the majority of what's there.“One of the most sincere forms of respect is actually listening to what another has to say.” ~ Bryant H. McGill

Small-time shows call themselves comic conventions, in order to bring in people, but they're a general geek smorgasboard. And $40 is ridiculous for a convention. At least, in my opinion. Might be the reason I haven't been to one in years.

Yeah, I figured as much. I guess since there's not a huge contingent of comic-specific people around this area, they have to throw all kinds of groups into one convention. [RANT] And yeah, $40 is ridiculous for what is there. There were some 'panels' but they were mostly some out of bounds, bizarre panel - for example at GMX there was "Rope for Beginners - this class will cover basic safety, types of rope, simple restraints and decorative rope work". W.T.F! Also, out of the 12-15 exhibitor booths, ONE had comics. The rest were selling junk, really. Total utter waste of money, will not be going back to that joke of a convention. [/RANT]

So what I will probably end up doing is saving up some leave and cash and making a big trip to one of the real comic conventions. Wizard World is having one in New Orleans at the end of the month, that may be worth going to..

Ugh, these last few 'shows' I've been to were just soooo disappointing.Big signatures are REALLY annoying.

Denver Comic Con was a blast and almost entirely comic-oriented.http://www.denvercomiccon.com/lots and lots of booths with vendors selling comic bookssome booths with vendors selling comic-related merchandiselots of comic book artists (famous as well as "unknown")a fair amount of people dressed up as comic book characters

That describes The Boston Comic Con as well. Lots of comic book vendors. And it is only $20.00.

I went to one Wizard World con and did not like it because I thought it was too pop culture and not enough comic book.

Some comic book stores are doing the same thing. Like the comic book store here in town is more a gaming store then a comic store. I think they have 1 small comic book rack & the rest of the space goes to selling gameing stuff or room for them to play

Small-time shows call themselves comic conventions, in order to bring in people, but they're a general geek smorgasboard. And $40 is ridiculous for a convention. At least, in my opinion. Might be the reason I haven't been to one in years.

If you want a COMICS convention, you're going to need to travel and hit one of the bigger shows. Mid-Ohio, Heroes, Dragon (ehhh..), Emerald City, Motor City, etc.

I dunno if Wizard still has a website, but I do know they tend to do shows a lot. Philly, Austin, Chicago, etc.

I wouldn't bother with Motor City, and I live in Michigan. I head out to C2E2 in Chicago. While it's not exclusively comics, it's still the majority of what's there.

It's been a few years since I've got to ANY convention, so I dunno anymore. I think I passed Chicago, just because it's so damn expensive just to GO to that show.

I know what you mean, frozilla! It's bad enough that many sellers' inventory is limited to a specific timeframe/market that you are not looking for. Now it seems like a majority of the vendors don't even sell comics. Most shows I go to now only have a handful of people selling Modern-Age comics and even less frequently Independent tiltles that I am looking for. I wish that venues would have a different (higher) pricing for vendors who don't sell comics at these shows or maybe open availability to sellers that actually sell comics first. Maybe having a separate event is the answer! Do one specifically for comics and another for comic related merchandise.

Oh well! I guess as long as they are selling a buttload of tickets, that's all that matters to them....ComicVortex

Current specials:

Get some of your comics for 30% offFor every comic you purchase from our 'Bargain Bin' (those priced $1 or less), another comic purchased over $1 will be $30% off (refunded via PayPal). eg. If you purchase 10 'Bargain Bin' books, then 10 books purchased that are each over $1 will recieve this refund, etc.

Free Shipping

Every domestic order of 25 or more comics gets FREE SHIPPING (Media Mail). Though I can't provide Free Shipping on foreign orders, we do offer a $5 refund on postage for purchases of 25 or more comics to foreign countries or a $10 refund if you buy 50 comics (again, foreign orders only).

Thanks for the input! Keep it coming! I'd like to get more of an idea of whats' out there. It could be possible that what I'm looking for isn't actually out there

I understand that in some areas you have to cater to alot of different groups just to get enough people to make it worth having a convention. Sucks, but I guess that's the way it is. But I thought surely there were conventuions still that were mainly comic book conventions - I think I might need to expand my search radius

I heard even ComicCon in San Diego was going the route of the rest of these; going more pop culture than just comic. A little of thats quite alright, even preferred to break up the monotony but if it's a "comic convention" it better be at least 50% about comics with several booths of comic vendors..

Maybe comic collecting is a dying art? I hate to say that but sometimes I get that feeling Big signatures are REALLY annoying.

Some comic book stores are doing the same thing. Like the comic book store here in town is more a gaming store then a comic store. I think they have 1 small comic book rack & the rest of the space goes to selling gameing stuff or room for them to play

This is the growing trend in my area too...Need help with a Change Request?Click here to contact an approver!Problems with CCL?Send an email right away (don't delay!) to helpdesk@comiccollectorlive.com615-264-4747Offices are open M-F 8am-5pm Central Time.You can also e-mail the Chief Brand Officer directly to try to resolve questions/stuff at steve@golocomedia.com for help with password resets, general customer service questions, store order resolution, credit card store updating, questions about comic books and CCL, etc...

Xylob's Most Wanted:G.I.Joe Special Missions TPB 2Tales from the Transformers Beast Wars: Critical MassYoungblood Bloodsport #2 maybe? can you help identify?

Some comic book stores are doing the same thing. Like the comic book store here in town is more a gaming store then a comic store. I think they have 1 small comic book rack & the rest of the space goes to selling gameing stuff or room for them to play

This is the growing trend in my area too...

I have 4 LCS that do the above. One of those four and a fifth comic shop deal a lot with used video games and movies. The sixith LCS is 60% comics,20% anime and 20% action figures. The last one is 75% comics/trades and 25% action figures.

Maybe comic collecting is a dying art? I hate to say that but sometimes I get that feeling

It is. Look at the sales figures. If you could see into my memory as I recall sales figures from the 80s you would never look again.

CBS Sunday Morning did a spotlight on the dying art of collectors and conventions about a year ago. A good piece, really, but utterly depressing. They concentrated on baseball cards, primarily, but the numbers were really pathetic: 15 years ago, conventions brought in tens of thousands of patrons, now they can't bring in more than a few hundred.

You may as well get used to it, since apparently the trend is to incorporate as much pop culture as possible for these conventions to keep interest alive. To be honest, I don't mind since I am a fan of anime and Hollywood, so when I finish browsing one aisle, I can migrate to another and feed my other sensibilities.

Alas, it DOES sound like you are coming across a paltry patch of comic-dom per unit capita at the events you are scouting. My advice is to keep looking, and note the best ones along your travels (and you may have to) for future reference. "We make a pretty good team, even if we don't work together." - My son

I went to WonderCon in 2009 in San Francisco and had a blast! It did have plenty of pop-culture stuff, but it also had plenty of comic stuff. TONS of artists and writers there to sign stuff and talk to. Lots of presentations from companies like Marvel, DC, IDW, Dark Horse, and others, all of which included Q & A sessions with fans at the end. And most of those companies had booths of their own on the floor with all kinds of sweet free stuff. I got to meet guys like Jim Lee, Geoff Johns, James Robinson, Roy Thomas, and so many more. And we got an advance screening of the surprisingly good animated Wonder Woman movie.

And, plenty of comics, action figures, and other memorabellia for sale from plenty of sellers.Make sure that you read and understand the forum rules here

Hi there, first let me start off prefacing this with my frustration. I've gone to two recent 'comic conventions' that have been nothing more than kids dressing up as Japanese characters. I went to MidsouthCon back in March and GMX in Nashville just two weeks ago. Both were prominently promoted with comics being one of the main points and both hardly even addressed comics.

One of the main things I'm going for is comic exhibitors. Each of these conventions had exactly ONE comic book booth and the rest were selling either fan fiction books (not my thing) or homemade crap like crystals and other things that appeal to another subsect of people. Perhaps I'm expecting too much from a COMIC convention but I expect to see MOSTLY comic stuff. Of course you can't find out that the convention is weak until you pay your entry fee, which btw, is way too much for what you're getting.

Tell me, do I expect too much? I'm looking for comic-related stuff and people seem to think this is an outlet for other geek-related stuff..I don't mind a variety but when its billed as a comic convention I expect comic stuff.

I most likely won't be attending these again, both were extremely disappointing.

Well it's Nashville what did you expect?

They have several mini conventions here that have about 20-30 different retailers that specialize in just comic books. Admission is between $5-10 or if you frequent some of the shops attending they give you a free pass to enter.

We have a bigger one here in June with about 250+ retailers just specializing in comic books. Admission for that one is $30 for one day or you can get a weekend pass for $50. I guess look around on the internet and see if you can find a better one that you are willing to travel to go to.

They have several mini conventions here that have about 20-30 different retailers that specialize in just comic books. Admission is between $5-10 or if you frequent some of the shops attending they give you a free pass to enter.

We have a bigger one here in June with about 250+ retailers just specializing in comic books. Admission for that one is $30 for one day or you can get a weekend pass for $50. I guess look around on the internet and see if you can find a better one that you are willing to travel to go to.

Where is that at? Heck, the smaller conventions with 20-30 sounds like a huge one compared to what I've been to.Big signatures are REALLY annoying.

You cannot post new topics in this forum.
You cannot reply to topics in this forum.
You cannot delete your posts in this forum.
You cannot edit your posts in this forum.
You cannot create polls in this forum.
You cannot vote in polls in this forum.